This invention relates to the performance of immunoassays on whole blood.
Immunoassays are carried out to detect a particular antigen, hapten, or antibody in blood. Since red blood cells interfere with such assays, they are normally removed from the blood prior to performing the assay, for example, by centrifugation or filtration. The resulting plasma solution can then be used in any standard immunoassay, e.g., as described by Gerber et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,503,143, hereby incorporated by reference, which describes a colorimetric method of detection of bindable substances such as antigens, using chromogenic agents such as tetramethyl benzidine.